Can you describe your background in 3D?
After graduating Fine Arts Accademy in Warsaw, Poland, I started working as a freelance graphic designer for various agencies and publishers.  Although at the time I was using mostly 2D applications on Macintosh computers, I have been always interested in motion design.  I founded my own company secializing in Web and CD-Rom graphics creation. Thats where I really started doing some animation-- 2D and 3D flying logos, and stuff like that.

In 1999 I decided to make my first short movie, Mantis.  I did it on my PowerMac G4 using Cinema 4D v6.1 (www.mantis.3d.pl) This little film, let me get the job in Platige Image, the studio behind "Fallen art" (www.platige.com).

After working in Platige Image studio, I was hired at CafeFX (www.cafefx.com) as a digital animator and I work there till present day.

How did you first come to use messiah?
After Cinema 4D , I used 3Dstudio Max for a couple of years but I have never been fully satisfied with its character animation capabilities (maybe I just didnt like character studio interface...who knows..).  I started looking for something more robust, and tried Lightwave.  There I heard about project:messiah. I was astonished by its speed, simplicity and possibilities.

When the standalone version came out (with the connection to Max) I purchased my copy of the software.That was back in 2002.

Coming from another program, was messiah easy to learn?
Given that messiah was only character animation program, yes, it was pretty easy.  And the little expression guide attached to each function is really helpfull and lets you create complex dependecies very easily.

What are some of the features in messiah that you just couldn't work without?
I simply love messiah softbody. although still not perfect (collision issues), I use it for various simulations, including fluids, particles and this kind of stuff.  I’m pretty creative with this tool ;-)

With the introduction of the Bloat effect and MetaEffectors a few updates ago, messiah became a powerfull muscle system too.  The speed is unpararelled and the possibilities are growing fast.

Now, if we could only have acces to direct vertex manipulation....;)

On "Fallen Art" what was the basic pipeline?
The models were done in Lightwave.  I imported the models to messiah (running standalone), and used them in the project.  The same models were imported to 3DS Max, where texturing, lighting and rendering was done.

After the animation was prepared, I used Mark Wilson's PointOven to bake out MDD files and import them to Max.  (The Max version of Point Oven was in Beta stage, and we were testing it in production that way)

Was messiah used "out of the box" or were any custom tools created?
The only custom tool was Point Oven [a publicly available third-party plug-in].

Since messiah was not the only animation package, were there specific types of shots or scenes that it was used for, or did it just depend on the animator's preference?
The use of messiah or other packages depended on the animator’s preference. I was the only person using messiah in that project but I had the most screen time to animate.

So about how much was animated in messiah?
Pretty much, after the first 30 seconds, almost all you see on the screen is animated in messiah.

What's next for you?
I’m working on my own animated short , as well as continue to work for CafeFX.

Thanks!
Thank you very much.

Click here to visit the Fallen Art web site.